Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! So much has been going on: 12 hour shifts each one starting at a different, weird time... packing up an apartment, moving 2000 miles... unpacking... starting a new job. SORRY! D:

Chapter 87

"I understand, yes. I do wish you had elected to trust me, Doctor, Brigadier. Now, now, Poppy, don't look like that, I understand why you didn't tell me anything. The students have to be able to trust you." Professor Dumbledore's voice wafted through the air.

Jack shot upright. He was in the Hospital Wing, tucked into a bed. The act of sitting up so quickly caught up with him almost immediately, and he leaned back into his pillows, softly groaning at the slight dizziness and sharp headache that had accompanied it.

"I will say," Dumbledore continued, "I think it will be much more dull around here without you."

"Oh, I don't think so," another voice answered. It had been so long since he'd heard it that it took Jack a moment to place it: the Doctor, tall, slender, spikey haired, adult Doctor. "Between you and me, the next few years are going to be quite interesting."

"Doctor," a warning voice spoke up.

"Brigadier, remind me again, which of us knows how space-time physics work and how to avoid proper spoilers?"

The Brigadier chose not to answer, but Jack could hear him muttering under his breath. It was then that the fourth member of the group spoke up. "Doctor, Brigadier, Headmaster, I believe Mr. Harkness is awake."

"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey. Gentlemen, if you will excuse me, I think I owe Jack quite a few explanations," said the Doctor.

"You still owe me a few explanations," grumbled the Brigadier.

The Doctor apparently chose not to answer the Brigadier and slipped through the privacy curtain that had been set up for Jack. There was a quick wand wave, and Jack felt a privacy spell spring up. "You," snarled Jack, staring at a fully re-aged Doctor. He struggled to throw off his bedsheets to hurl himself at the Doctor, acutely aware that he was still in the body of a child.

"Wait, wait," the Doctor said calmly. "Do you want to be re-aged first or do you want an explanation first? I'm afraid," he added, studying Jack's murderous expression, "that beating me up is not an option."

"Explanation, re-age, and then you can drop me off in 2010," Jack snarled, sinking back into the bed, glaring at the Doctor.

"Very well," the Doctor sighed. "I let Pettigrew escape," he started.

"You let a murderer escape and now Sirius Black will be taking the blame!" Jack interrupted.

"Yes. Harry and Hermione have already rescued him," the Doctor assured Jack. "Jack, it had to happen. It was a fixed point. Pettigrew could not be captured, and the world could not find out that he was still alive."

"Bull."

The Doctor sighed. "Shall I explain it to you?" Jack crossed his arms and leaned back, maintaining eye contact. "Pettigrew is going to escape to Albania. There, he is going to find Voldemort's spirit. Together, they will infiltrate the Wizarding World and Voldemort will be properly reborn. A shadow war, the Second Voldemort War will begin."

"What the hell, Doctor!" Jack yelped. "You intentionally allowed the start of a war?"

"In four years, Harry Potter will be in a position to stop Voldemort permanently. This is the only way. It has to be Harry, Voldemort has to be fully alive at the time, the war must be in full swing. Otherwise, there will be nothing that will stop Voldemort and he will conquer the Wizarding World. Voldemort's end is all put in motion here, with the escape of Pettigrew. Jack, even if we somehow managed to prove Black's innocence but allowed Pettigrew to escape, the aurors would be on high alert. Voldemort and Pettigrew would never be able to initiate Voldemort's plan to become fully alive. It all has to happen." The Doctor sagged, "I hate it. I wish we could stop it. Many will die because of this, but more will die if Voldemort is not stopped. That's the choice: play with a fixed point in an effort to save one man, or doom that man and save hundreds if not thousands."

There was silence as Jack thought it over. The Doctor looked tired, as if his lifestyle was catching up to him, all the lives he changed or ruined, and the deaths he caused. And Jack realized something. "Your life, your journey," he started, "I don't think it's the type humans are meant to be on. Back when I first joined you, it was amazing. We did things nobody else could or would. We traveled with you, watched you play the role of a god, deciding who would live and who would not. It was exhilarating, being so close to that type of power. But now," he shook his head, "I want no part in it. You play with lives, with societies, with the very fabric of space-time itself. Perhaps you can state that it is a fixed point, that it has to happen. And yes, I understand, last time you tried to alter a fixed point, it went poorly. But what kind of person puts himself in a position to even have to make the decision against altering a fixed point? What kind of life do you live, Doctor, where this is a regular choice for you?"

"I didn't choose to bring us here, Jack," the Doctor protested.

"But you will continue traveling, Doctor, despite knowing that trouble finds you, that you will always be the one who will have to make decisions like this. Perhaps tagging along with you is a young man's game." He shook his head. "I don't want anything to do with it. Re-age me and take me home."

Madam Pomfrey was tending to Ron Weasley's leg when a tall man stepped out from behind the privacy curtains that she had erected around Jack Harkness's bed. He caught her eye and smiled, a stunning, American movie star-esque smile. He did a spin for her, showing off all sides. His preferred dress, like the now adult Doctor, was decidedly muggle, but a much older style of muggle, she decided. Indeed, it reminded her of her father's wardrobe: slacks, suspenders, a button down shirt, all topped off with a greatcoat. "Mr. Harkness, I presume?"

The smile, somehow, grew larger. "Jack, you can call me Jack." He stepped forward, hand outstretched to shake.

Behind him, the Doctor, thin, lithe, brown haired and not at all looking like his de-aged self stepped out from her office where he had been waiting while Harkness got dressed. "Oh stop," he said, a weary tone of exasperation coloring his voice.

Harkness rolled his eyes and proceeded to shake her hand. "It's nice to properly meet you," he said.

"You're acting as if I did not see you less than an hour ago for a final check up before being re-aged," Madam Pomfrey said sharply. She could almost understand why the Doctor seemed so tired of dealing with Harkness sometimes.

Harkness shrugged. "Well, I for one feel like I am meeting you for the first time. A child's view of someone is dramatically different than an adult's."

"Jack…" the Doctor's voice rang out, a warning if there ever was one.

"I meant in terms of height, Doctor," Jack shot back. Pomfrey frowned. Whatever had happened between the two boys… men… when the Doctor spoke to Harkness in private, it had once again strained their relationship. Jack seemed to glance her expression. He shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he told her quietly. "We've always had an odd relationship. Give it some years and I'm sure we'll be friends again." It was said quietly, too quietly for the Doctor, had he been human, to hear. Despite this, his shoulders seemed to slump and, behind Harkness's back, he nodded at her, confirming the other man's statement.

"Well," Madam Pomfrey said, "in that case, it was very nice to meet both of you properly, face to face." She smiled at the two of them. The Doctor casually stepped up to join them. "I imagine you will go back to traveling or whatever it is you do?"

"Something like that," Harkness muttered.

"I'll be around," the Doctor said. "Professor Dumbledore and I are on more fair terms now. He knows what I am. We can both speak freely and without constraint. It will be interesting to continue our studies of the universe together. I'll stop by and say hi to you too occasionally."

"Give me some warning first," Madam Pomfrey requested.

"Very well," the Doctor smiled.

"I do not think I will be visiting again," Jack said. "But if you find yourself in Wales in the 21st century, say after 2010, you can usually find me at the Roald Dahl Plaza."

Madam Pomfrey shook her head in wonder. "2010," she said. "16 years from now."

"For you," Harkness pointed out. "For me, a few days at most."

"Speaking of which, Captain, I believe the dementors have cleared out as Professor Dumbledore promised," the Doctor said, glancing out the window. "We can leave at any time now."

Jack nodded and reached into a pocket. He pulled out three rolls of parchment, each sealed with a glob of wax and labeled with a name. He passed them to Madam Pomfrey. "Could you see that Ash, Al, and Hermione get these?" he asked. "I didn't want to disappear and them have no answers."

"Ah, Jack?" the Doctor started.

"Don't worry, nothing that will compromise anything. Just that we're going and won't be able to write to them."

The Doctor nodded and turned back to Madam Pomfrey. "The Brigadier won't be going anywhere. I've already told the headmaster, but if you need anything, be it a cover story to feed the rest of the school, or simply just someone to talk with about all this, feel free to write to him. He'll answer."

Madam Pomfrey nodded, suddenly feeling very overwhelmed. Harkness reached forward, wiping a tear off her cheek. She had not even been aware that she was crying. "Hey, don't be upset. We're just going home. The Doc will be around, and as soon as my timeline catches up, I'll get in touch, okay?"

She nodded and reached out to them, pulling the two taller men into a hug. Poppy Pomfrey watched as the two men, her boys, walked out of her life even easier than they had walked in.

"Farewell, Madam Pomfrey."

~Fin~

A/N: I hope I did that ending well. As stated at the beginning, life has been rather hectic lately. I started writing this story 6 years ago. At the time, I hardly knew it was going to grow into this. I certainly did not expect it to last all the way through medical school and well into residency. I just wanted to read a Doctor Who x Harry Potter story in which the Doctor was a student at the school. Somehow, the story kept growing. There were so many different ideas that I wanted to fit in. I think I got all of them in, and I can only hope that I gave each one justice. Thank you to all of you who have kept up with this story, with all its side trips, with all its delays and silly update schedule. You all are awesome, thank you so much for reading my story.

I am planning an epilogue, I have no idea when it will be posted or in how many parts.